Intel has finally officially launched its ‘Ivy Bridge’ Core i3s. Engraved at 22nm, these dual core processors with Hyperthreading and 3 MB of L3 cache include the improvements already ushered in by Ivy Bridge, namely a slight gain in performance at equal clocks (3 to 4%), a reduction in energy consumption and official support for DDR3-1600. In contrast to the Ivy Bridge Core i5s and i7s, they still have a Gen2 PCI-Express controller, a new purely marketing limitation that can only be regretted. VT-d and AES-NI instructions are also absent. You can consult these articles for further information:

In the absence of any competition, Intel has unfortunately only done the bare minimum as, at equal clocks, the new Core i3-32xxs are priced the same as the Sandy Bridge Core i3-21xxs were before this launch. Worse still, as the Core i3-2130 (3.4 GHz) has been reduced from $138 to $117 on this occasion, there’s not necessarily any improvement in the price/performance ratio.

In comparison to the Core i3s the Pentiums, remember, don’t have Hyperthreading, AVX, QuickSync or Clear Video HD. Here again there’s not really any improvement in the price/performance ratio in comparison to the old range because while the Sandy Bridge G870 3.1 GHz was priced at $86 before this launch, it is now priced at $75. The G2100T is however at the same price and has the same clock as the G860T. Intel has taken the opportunity of introducing the Pentium G645s and G555s to the Sandy Bridge range. Right at the bottom of the range a new single core Celeron with 1.5 MB of L3 cache has made its appearance with a clock of 1.9 GHz. This is the Celeron G465, priced at $37.

Note finally the arrival of two new Ivy Bridge Core i5s. The Core i5-3350P and the Core i5-3330, on sale at $177 and $182 respectively. The first is a version of the Core i5-3450 ($184) with its IGP deactivated and a less powerful Turbo. The second has an HD Graphics 2500 module but is only clocked at 3 GHz. It’s also possible that its Turbo might be lower. Nothing transcendental then, given the small price difference between the existing versions!